ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO / “Summertime”

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I love the various versions you’ve posted here because each has its own unique light (and isn’t that the real idea behind interpretation?).

Kidjo’s version pulses with a spiritual fire, while the Baker/Chestnut collabo is more languid and – dare I say – humid? Makes me wanna fan myself on a front porch and move slowly…too hot to do any real work, but too enticing to stay indoors. Not sweat, but perspiration.

Summertime is one of those classics that lends itself to unique interpretations – so much so that you can make a whole cassette tape of different versions by the great song stylists of our time, and of course I did (oops- showing my age, need to burn a CD these days). Must have been hard to choose the ones here today. I listen to the incomparable Sarah Vaughan ‘Live in Japan’, Ella Fitzgerald on ‘Ella in Berlin’, Dinah Washington & Clifford Brown, Dakota staton on the Late, Late Show’, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Shirley Horn on ‘I remember Miles’, Lorez Alexandria, Ernestine Anderson, Lena Horne, even Mahalia Jackson -the list goes on and on. Or John Coltrane’s take on his ‘My Favorite Things’ album, ‘Oscar Peterson & Joe Pass’, the Uptown String Quartet, Bird, Diz, Louis, Duke, Kenny Burrell. Herbie Hancock or my all time favorite the “Modern Jazz Quartet plays Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess”, from Milt Jackson’s resonant vibes to John Lewis’ elegant piano – a truly magical performance. (Though you better try and find a LP or an import – the current CD issued by Collectables is abominably mastered, full of tape hiss and distortion)
Thanks for introducing us to Angelique Kidjo’s interpretation – I’ll add it to my favorites.
There are a few other chestnuts that I have made one-song tapes of, that I never tire of listening to: Round Midnight, My Funny Valentine, Misty and my brother’s favorite, Willow Weep for Me.
Looking forward to your next set of musical memories…

Cyrus Colter is the man here in B’more for pianists. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen him except on TV. He does everything that can be done with a piano, and then more. It does not matter what kind of piano it is — tuned or untuned, old stand up or grand. Cyrus says, Just let me play. He goes on, “I don’t play to put you to sleep . . . You see these ten fingers, I’m going to get the best I can.” He treats a piano as if it’s his woman and he knows her more intimately than any man before or after he came on the scene.

Thanks for the info on Billy Stewart. I did not know what happened to him — 33, hunh. The man was a musical genius. I did grow up with Billy Stewart, that is, hearing him. I think I might have seen him way back when the Royal Theater on Pennsylvania Avenue were doing three shows on Fridays — matinee, 8, and midnight. Billy Stewart also did a piece called “I’m a Fat Boy.” And when he sang it, you thought what a grand thing it was to be a fat boy.